Make your own stock
It is easy and cheap to make your own stock to use in soups, stews and casserole bases. You can make vegetable stock using the scraps and peelings from vegetables like carrot tops, onion skins, leek leaves, limp celery. Collect your vegetable scraps in a plastic bag or container and keep it in the freezer until you have enough to make a batch of stock.
Ingredients
Method
Ingredients
- at least 4 cups vegetable scraps and peelings
- or 4 cups chopped vegetables (more if your pot is large)
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 5–10 whole peppercorns (optional)
- 1 bay leaf (optional)
- a few sprigs of fresh herbs (optional)
- water
Method
1. Place all of the ingredients in a large pot and cover them with water.
2. Bring the water to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and leave the stock to simmer for up to 2 hours.
3. Strain the stock, making sure to capture the liquid. Either use the stock immediately, store it in the fridge for up to a week or freeze it for later use.
4. Discard the soggy vegetable scraps by placing them in your compost. If you used chopped vegetables instead of scraps, save the cooked vegetables to use in a soup.
Note: if using your own vegetable stock in a recipe, you may need to add in extra salt.